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SpaceX rocket launched from Florida carrying NASA planet-hunting telescope

Reuters
FILE PHOTO: NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, U.S., is shown in this artist's rendering image obtained on April 9, 2018. Courtesy Chris Meaney/Goddard Space Flight Center/NASA/Handout via REUTERS

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - A Falcon 9 rocket blasted off on Wednesday on SpaceX's first high-priority science mission for NASA, a planet-hunting space telescope whose launch was delayed for two days by a rocket-guidance glitch.

The Transit Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, lifted off on schedule from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 6:51 p.m. EDT, starting the clock on a two-year quest to detect more worlds circling stars beyond our solar system that might harbor life.

The main-stage booster successfully separated from the upper-stage of the rocket and headed back to Earth on a self-guided return flight to an unmanned landing vessel floating in the Atlantic.

The first stage, which can be recycled for future flights, then landed safely on the ocean platform, according to SpaceX launch team announcers on NASA TV.

Blastoff followed a two-day launch postponement forced by a technical glitch in the rocket's guidance-control system.

(Reporting by Joey Roulette from Cape Canaveral, Florida; Additional reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)